Most episodes of Transformers: Robots in Disguise up until now have been sort of “monster of the week” affairs. So it’s nice to occasionally get something that moves things forward.
Things start out with Fixit installing a proximity alarm around the junkyard. He’s explaining everything to Russell, who isn’t listening because he’s playing with his smartphone like it’s a GameBoy. It goes off to the annoyance of everyone else. Fixit turns it off and asks how the mission went.
They found nothing but an empty stasis pod. Strongarm once again blames Sideswipe for slowing everyone down, and he’s quick to point out that if anyone slowed them down, it was Grimlock. Grimlock walks right up to Sideswipe and punches him a good thirty feet.
In case you hadn’t guessed, mind control is the name of the game. A quick fight breaks out. Side3swipe gets knocked down, and Bumblebee soon follows him when he tries to break it up. Finding herself the lone Autobot standing, Strongarm pulls her service gun and prepares to fire at Grimlock. Sideswipe knocks her shot off course, however, causing a pile of junk to fall on Grimlock, temporarily trapping him.
And that’s how they act for most of the remainder of the episode. Sideswipe blindly believes in Grimlock as an ally under the assumption that something is wrong with him, Strongarm is lawful stupid, because to her anything you’ve ever done is the sole determining factor of your character, and Bumblebee makes for a medium, knowing that you can’t trust someone who acts like Grimlock has, but also not quick to jump to the harshest possible conclusion. Their infighting makes up most of the drama in the episode.
Once he gets back up, Grimlock makes short work of them. He then continues on towards Fixit and Russell. They panic for a second, before Fixit remembers that it’s his duty to deal with the situation as the caretaker of the Alchemor. He’s as ineffective as you imagine, and gets flicked 100 feet away like he’s a henchman in a Steven Segal movie.
Grimlock turns to Russell, and draws back his arm to smash him. But something keeps him from doing so. He argues with himself over it, before deciding to go off and look for the stasis pods. This event gives Russell his suspicions about what’s really going on.
Grimlock finds the pods, grabbing the one containing Underbite before the alarm goes off again. He finds the source of the alarm, and smashes the console controlling it. He asks Russell what the purpose of the alarm was, when all of the others were out cold. Russell bluffs, telling him that the alarm means Optimus was coming. This scares him off, and he settles for returning with Underbite’s pod alone.
Once Bee, Strongarm, and Sideswipe are up again, they immediately bicker over what has happened. Strongarm lawful-stupidly exclaims that she should have never trusted a known felon, while Bee argues that it’s out of character for Grimlock, considering his arrest record contains noting but severe property damage charges. No one listens to Russell.
They ultimately set off in search of Grimlock, assuming that they’ll find whoever he’s taking the pods to when they find him. Bumblebee leaves Fixit with orders to fix the comm systems. As Fixit is about to go to work Russell asks him to pull up the prisoner manifest, saying it will only take a minute. They look through, and quickly find what Russell suspected they would. Fixit realizes that they have to warn them posthaste, and goes to work on the comm system.
After stumbling through a trap, Bumblebee and co. catch up to Grimlock at the conveniently automated dam. Grimlock starts talking to Steeljaw. Steeljaw is not pleased that Grimlock ran before getting the other pods, but considers himself benevolent enough to settle for Underbite for now, arguing that it’s a start towards his utopic ideals. The Autobots show up around this time, and Bumblebee and Steeljaw begin fighting.
Sideswipe reluctantly begins fighting with Grimlock. Eventually, Grimlock hurls a spool of steel cable at Sideswipe; he misses, but manages to take out Strongarm, Bumblebee, and Steeljaw with it. Steeljaw begins to chew out Grimlock for it, before Sideswipe jumps him and grabs him by the ears as Grimlock watches on. Steeljaw kicks him off, and Sideswipe draws his sword. Strongarm and Bumblebee get up; he asks her if she’s okay, and she tells him she just had her bell rung a little bit.
Steeljaw manages to get Sideswipe off his ass by pointing out that Bee and Strongarm clearly need help with Grimlock. Steeljaw beats a hasty retreat with Underbite’s pod while sideswipe helps them. They eventually subdue Grimlock with some of the steel wire, when their comms start up. After a snippet of ranchero music, Fixit tells them that Grimlock is being controlled by a tiny Decepticon named Minitron. They eventually find it, with predictable results.
Grimlock eventually catches him, hurling him against the wall to knock him out. They return to the junkyard and put him in a stasis pod. Bumblebee tells Grimlock that he’s going to have Fixit remove his Decepticon symbol and replace it with an Autobot one. Elated, he crushes Sideswipe and Russell to death in a giant bear hug.
Overall, this episode is consistent with the series. Steeljaw makes for an interesting villain; it helps that this series isn’t yet another retelling of the Autobot/Decepticon war, and thus isn’t chained to an eventual confrontation between Optimus and Megatron. And since it has already been renewed for a second season, this sort of episode might turn into more of a trend.
Final Thoughts:
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Denny is not in this episode. He was clearly busy playing Sudoku.
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Someone needs to roll Steeljaw into the advice animal meme.
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When will Fixit repair his verbal tick malfunction? It’s starting to get annoying.
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